Cats And Seaweed

Today I fancied doing some tehnical exercises in my sketchbook, just for a few minutes, so I squinted my eyes and drew the outline shapes thrown by my little cat Sparta. It’s not that easy because the second you start to draw a cat, they fidget. Even when they’re asleep! It didn’t take long toContinue reading “Cats And Seaweed”

Cockles And Icecream

Still babysitting and we took the two little ‘uns to the beach at Burryport today. It’s a funny little town which has been a bit rundown for many years, yet has a beautiful harbour with Georgian cottages, a lighthouse and a lovely beach. The car park had a coupke of vans selling seafood and icecreamContinue reading “Cockles And Icecream”

Sprogs And Curiosities

It’s been a varied holiday week, saying goodbye at the funeral of a teacher and mentor, Pat Briggs; saying hello to a new little great nephew, as yet unnamed but in the Welsh tradition already nicknamed, Ffredi [which is Welsh for Freddy :)] and two days babysitting small family sprogs. Not a lot of timeContinue reading “Sprogs And Curiosities”

Teacher, Artist, Great British Eccentric

Today was one of those days where I experienced the meaning of the word ‘bittersweet’. I went with many others to the funeral of Pat Briggs, a Swansea-based artist, printmaker and sculptor who taught me in my first year at Swansea Art College, on my Foundation year, almost 40 years ago. We both stuck aroundContinue reading “Teacher, Artist, Great British Eccentric”

Drawing A Drawing And Dylan’s Caff

I’ve not done much artwork the past couple of days, it’s holiday time and I’m trying not to fall into the trap of not taking time off, which is something a lot of self-employed people do. I had a lovely time with an old friend, lunch at Bizzie Lizzies  and an afternoon pot of teaContinue reading “Drawing A Drawing And Dylan’s Caff”

A Man Constrained [parental guidance – male nudity]

When I’m at life drawing group I prefer poses that turn the body in on itself in some way, I guess that reflects me and my somewhat dystopic view of life, the universe and everything. I like to draw ‘off-the-page’ and have done so for as long as I can remember, since I was aContinue reading “A Man Constrained [parental guidance – male nudity]”

Prints, Awards and Bloggers.

These are large monotypes I did from original drawings from the life drawing group at Swansea Print Workshop. It takes me a full day at the print studio to do each, plus about half a day to work up a scale drawing from my original sketch, which is usually done into a sketchbook. The middleContinue reading “Prints, Awards and Bloggers.”

A Grand Day Out.

A little relative had her 5th birthday today so we had a family day out at Folly Farm in West Wales, which was grand, although freezing cold. Of course it was, it’s a British Bank Holiday – too much to expect fine weather. At least it didn’t rain. We are lucky to still have fourContinue reading “A Grand Day Out.”

More Male Model

The drawing I posted yesterday of one of our male models from life drawing group got quite a lot of comments, so by popular request here are some more drawings of him. He’s a young soldier who has seen action in Afghanistan and when he’s home he likes to relax by doing a spot ofContinue reading “More Male Model”

Suffering for my art!

Just a quick blog tonight as I’ve only just got back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop and I want to go to bed! Here’s out fabulous model who is also a soldier in the Territorial Army [army reserves]. He’s just become a ‘poster-boy’ for the TA’s and we walked around the corner theContinue reading “Suffering for my art!”